Breaking down in tears at a coroner’s inquest Thursday, a nurse who gave Ashley Smith four injections of powerful drugs in one day — including antipsychotics — testified she was simply trying to assist the troubled teen.

The nurse, Melanie Boucher, administered the medications on July 22, 2007, while Smith was an inmate in the Joliette prison in Quebec, the inquest has heard.

Three months later, the 19-year-old died of asphyxiation in a prison cell at Kitchener’s Grand Valley Institution for Women.

Smith was seen on that July morning putting a metal object in one of her body cavities while in a segregation cell at the prison, Boucher testified.

Fearing Smith might harm herself or others with the object, a psychiatrist, Dr. Michele Roy, who was not present in the jail at the time, advised Boucher over the phone to put Smith in physical restraints and drug her with “chemical restraints,’’ Boucher has testified.

The goal, the Toronto inquest heard Thursday, was to stabilize Smith and get her quickly to a hospital, where a body cavity search could be done on her to locate the objects.

Reading from notes at the time, Boucher told the inquest that later that day a physician at the hospital refused to do the cavity search, so Smith remained at the jail.

In the meantime, the teenager was given another drug injection around 8 p.m. that day by a different nurse, bringing the total for the day to five.

The inquest also heard that Smith received another two injections of sedatives from Boucher July 26, 2007 — again under Roy’s orders, Boucher testified — shortly before Smith was to get on a plane and fly to another women’s prison in Nova Scotia.

On a video of the injection incidents at the inquest Wednesday, Smith repeatedly says “no” to the shots, and the issue of her non-consent became a central theme Thursday, one that was pounced on by Julian Roy, the lawyer for the Smith family.

Boucher admitted Smith was given the shots without her consent, because the teen was seen putting the objects in one of her cavities.

The psychiatrist said consent “didn’t enter the picture’’ because of the hidden objects, Boucher told the lawyer.

The lawyer asked the nurse whether she recalled the psychiatrist saying Smith’s consent was irrelevant.

“I wouldn’t say irrelevant,’’ the nurse shot back.

Boucher said the goal at the time was to save Smith’s life, and that under those circumstances it was “common practice’’ in Quebec in those days in hospitals to give injections without consent.

Boucher was also working in a hospital at the time, the inquest has heard.

Lawyer Roy asked her if she’s aware of the changes sparked by the injection controversy involving Smith at Joliette.

Boucher told him there are clear rules about who can give inmates injections.

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